Unpaid Overtime in Canada: The Complete Guide to Getting Paid What You're Owed
There is no single 'Canadian' overtime rule. Whether you are federally regulated or work in Ontario or Québec decides your threshold, your rate and your deadline. Here is how each regime works.
Start Here: Federal, Ontario or Québec?
Before you calculate a single hour, answer one question: is your employer a federal work or undertaking? That group includes chartered banks, interprovincial and air, rail and marine transport, telecommunications, broadcasting, the postal service and federal Crown corporations — roughly 6 to 8% of the workforce. Everyone else is governed by the province where the work is performed.
This is not a technicality. A federally regulated worker who is wrongly told the "Ontario 44-hour rule" applies loses overtime premium on real hours every single week. Read Are You a Federally Regulated Employee? first if you are unsure — it walks through the decision step by step.
Once you know your regime, three levers determine what you are owed.
Lever 1 — The Threshold: When Overtime Starts
The threshold is the number of hours after which each extra hour must be paid at a premium. It is where the three regimes diverge most sharply.
- Federal: overtime applies after 8 hours in a day AND 40 hours in a week — whichever is reached first (Canada Labour Code, s. 169(1)). The federal regime is the only one of the three with a daily threshold.
- Ontario: overtime applies after 44 hours in a work week, with no statutory daily threshold (ESA, s. 22(1)).
- Québec: overtime applies after 40 hours in a week, with no daily threshold (LNT, art. 52).
The full comparison — and why applying "44 hours" to a federal or Québec file quietly under-pays you by four hours a week — is in 40 or 44 Hours? The Threshold That Decides When You Get Paid More. Note that a valid averaging agreement can shift how the weekly threshold is measured in all three regimes; check your collective agreement or contract if one is in place.
Lever 2 — The Rate: 1.5× Everywhere
Here the three regimes agree. The legal, calculable floor for overtime is one and one-half times the regular rate in all three:
- Federal: Canada Labour Code, s. 174(1)(a);
- Ontario: ESA, s. 22(1);
- Québec: a majoration de 50 % of the usual hourly wage, LNT art. 55.
The nuance is what the 1.5× is applied to. Québec's law is explicit that the base excludes hourly-based premiums ("à l'exclusion des primes établies sur une base horaire", art. 55). See Overtime Pay in Canada: When You're Owed Time-and-a-Half for the calculation base in each regime, and How to Calculate Your Overtime Pay in Ontario for a step-by-step worked example.
Lever 3 — The Lookback: How Far Back You Can Reclaim
The clock is unforgiving, and it runs differently in each regime:
- Federal: a payment order can reach back 24 months before the complaint (or before termination) (s. 251.1(1.1)), and the complaint itself must be filed within 6 months of the day the wages were due (s. 251.01).
- Ontario: an order for wages cannot reach further than 2 years before the complaint or inspection (s. 111).
- Québec: a civil action is prescribed after one year, counted from each due date (LNT art. 115) — the shortest window of the three, and the reason early action matters most in Québec. A CNESST investigation notice suspends prescription for six months (art. 116).
The federal deep-dive, including banked time-off rules, is in Overtime Under the Canada Labour Code.
What Is NOT Set by Statute in Any of the Three
Be careful with claims you may see online. Night and Sunday premiums are not fixed by statute in the federal, Ontario or Québec regime. Where they exist, they come from a collective agreement or the contract, not the law. None of the three statutes sets a general legal night or Sunday rate, so treat any such premium as depending on your collective agreement or contract — not as a guaranteed legal entitlement.
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Ontario — Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 22(1): "Subject to subsection (1.1), an employer shall pay an employee overtime pay of at least one and one-half times his or her regular rate for each hour of work in excess of 44 hours in each work week or, if another threshold is prescribed, that prescribed threshold."
Federal — Canada Labour Code, s. 174(1): "When an employee is required or permitted to work overtime, they are entitled to (a) be paid for the overtime at a rate of wages not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of wages; or (b) be granted not less than one and one-half hours of time off with pay for each hour of overtime worked, subject to subsections (2) to (5)."
Sources: Employment Standards Act, 2000 (S.O. 2000, c. 41), s. 22; Canada Labour Code (R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2), Part III, s. 174.
Where to Go Next
- Are You a Federally Regulated Employee? Why It Changes Your Overtime Rights
- 40 or 44 Hours? The Overtime Threshold That Decides When You Get Paid More
- Overtime Pay in Canada: When You're Owed Time-and-a-Half (1.5×)
- How to Calculate Your Overtime Pay in Ontario (Step by Step)
- Overtime Under the Canada Labour Code: A Guide for Federally Regulated Workers
Who Enforces Your Rights
Knowing your regulator matters as much as knowing your rule. If you are federally regulated, complaints go to the federal Labour Program, and payment orders are issued by the Head. In Ontario, you deal with the Ministry of Labour, and review is before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. In Québec, you file with the CNESST, and disputes go before the Tribunal administratif du travail. None of these is a "prud'hommes" — that is the French system and does not exist in Canada.
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Check your overtime for free
Not sure whether your employer applied the right threshold — or paid the 1.5× premium at all? PayeMesHeures is an hours-audit tool that compares your actual worked hours against your pay records and applies the legal floor for your regime (federal, Ontario or Québec) to estimate what you may be owed. Starting is free. Run your audit and find out in minutes whether there is unpaid overtime to recover — before the lookback window closes on the oldest hours.